1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for controlling an electronic device, more particularly to a method for automatically controlling an electronic device utilizing the consumer electronic control (CEC) communication protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
High definition multimedia interface (hereinafter referred to as HDMI) is an interface for transmission of totally digitized video and sound to permit interconnection of a plurality of video or audio devices (e.g., set-top boxes, DVD players, personal computers, televisions, stereo systems, etc.) via a single cable so as to provide digital video and sound of a higher definition, thereby replacing conventional analog audio-visual transmission interfaces, such as SCART, RCA terminals, etc.
The HDMI standard defines a communication protocol known as the consumer electronic control (referred to as CEC hereinafter) communication protocol, which is mainly used to allow a user to utilize an active device to control operations of a plurality of controlled devices that are connected to the active device via the HDMI interface, e.g., using a liquid crystal television (active device) to control turning on or off of a video recorder (controlled device) so as to achieve objectives of one touch play, one touch record, etc., thereby enabling the user to conveniently control electronic devices via the HDMI interface.
Although audio or video devices that support the CEC communication protocol are quite convenient in operation and have become more and more popular, these audio or video devices still require manual control in order to be able to operate, and are incapable of using a certain video or audio device (active device) to control operation of another video or audio device (controlled device) without user control. Therefore, for some people who are often away from home, they may miss favorite TV programs or important information just because they are not physically present to manually control such audio or video devices. Thus, automatic control of audio and video devices that support the CEC communication protocol is the subject of improvement of this invention.